


Symmetry

by wneleh



Category: Stargate Universe
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fanfiction of Fanfiction, Gen, M/M, Rush has had better days
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-16
Updated: 2014-03-16
Packaged: 2018-01-15 22:47:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1322092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wneleh/pseuds/wneleh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Young and Rush run into Chloe near the end of Chapter 63 of Cleanwhiteroom's <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/578387/chapters/1037796">Force Over Distance</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Symmetry

**Author's Note:**

> Cleanwhiteroom gives us several nice Chloe-Rush scenes near the end of [Force Over Distance](http://archiveofourown.org/works/578387/chapters/1037796), but we never see their first meeting after his return from the tidally-locked planet, so I've written out how I imagine it happening. I initially pictured them talking about life, and love, and science, and the future, but Rush was just too fractured so I settled for a little hand-holding.
> 
> I've read/listened to this part of Force Over Distance many times, but I'm still not certain exactly how telepathically chatty Young and Rush are at this point, midway through his recovery. If I've overstated it, I apologize!

Symmetry  
by Helen W.

Chloe doesn’t notice the colonel and Dr. Rush until they’re several yards beyond the threshold of the observation deck, the colonel taking slow, measured steps, Dr. Rush’s hand wrapped around the colonel’s arm. She expects them to continue through to the central bench, but they’ve stopped. Chloe wonders if those twenty extra steps are just more than Dr. Rush has in him.

She closes “McQuarrie and Simon” – what Lisa calls the physical chemistry textbook she’s sharing with Eli - just loudly enough, and they turn toward her. The colonel looks sad and a little bit tired - in other words, like he usually does. But Dr. Rush’s face has gone from worn, to startled, to revealing the broadest smile, and Chloe jumps up and runs and throws her arms around him, and hugs him as hard as she dares. He’s thin, and way too warm. And he’s hugging her back just as hard, so she tilts her head down a little, into his neck, to hold him closer.

“You’re alright?” he murmurs. 

“Of course,” she says. “Didn’t you know?”

She feels him nod. “I was told,” he whispers. 

The angle of their bodies means she’s now facing Colonel Young, who is standing a little apart from them, arms folded, clearly _thinking_ something at Dr. Rush, who, presumably, is thinking something right back. 

“What?” she asks, not letting go.

The colonel is now smirking. Yes, that’s a smirk. “He wants to know why people keep hugging him.”

She laughs and pulls back, taking Dr. Rush’s hands. “People? What people?”

He just smiles and looks down and away, and again Chloe senses the unspoken conversation flowing between the two men. It drives Eli crazy when they do this, and completely freaks Matt out, but Chloe doesn’t mind. 

“You here for six a.m. yoga?” she asks. “You’re early.”

That gets the true smile she wants out of the colonel. “No, we’re just stretching our legs. Getting reacquainted with the ship. Next stop’s his quarters, then a shower.”

Chloe can’t immediately remember whether it’s been one day or two (or three? No, not three) since her space walk, but Dr. Rush had been fine then. Fine enough. Her knowledge of what happened during the shuttle crash, and after, is limited, and she wishes she’d tried to find out more already. 

Instead of sleeping. Yeah, always a good idea, that.

Colonel Young, in contrast, had escaped their most recent crisis physically intact. No blast burns, stab wounds, or poison darts. Not even a near-drowning, though that has never really been his thing. 

Chloe is surprised he isn’t out jogging.

Of course he isn’t jogging. 

Chloe drops Dr. Rush’s hands and turns to the colonel, hands on hips, mock-stern. “Go,” she says. “For a run. Now. He’ll be fine.”

“No, that’s…” the colonel starts, and now he and Dr. Rush are thinking at each other again. 

“Okay,” he says after only a moment. “I think… I wouldn’t mind a short run. I won’t be far.”

And then the colonel is gone, and she realizes she’s now babysitting her – well, mentor’s as good a word as any. Which is, well, kind of awkward. Fortunately, Chloe is actually pretty good at awkward.

“Come on, let’s go sit,” she says. Dr. Rush says nothing, so she takes his hand and leads him to the central bench.

“Is this okay?” she asks. “Do you want to sit on something with a back?”

“No,” he replies, “this is fine.”

And so they sit. After a moment, Chloe takes his hand. Dr. Rush neither pulls away nor tightens his fingers. It’s weird. But the colonel, TJ, and even Ron Greer have all been there for Dr. Rush when he’s needed them; she can handle it too.

So, conversation. They usually talk about the ship’s immediate problems, or, more recently, homework. Sometimes about graduate school – Dr. Rush had just about convinced her to go, and sometimes they chat about the pros and cons of various schools, or what she might like to dig into, if and when she gets in somewhere.

“So… Lisa was saying I might look at the University of Chicago…”

Dr. Rush stays silent for a moment. “California is nicer,” he says.

“I didn’t mind Boston.”

“California is nicer.”

Okay then.

“Are you following him right now?” she finally has to ask.

“How can you tell?”

“I don’t think you’re multi-tasking too well at the moment.”

She means it as a joke, but it’s clear that this is the wrong thing to say. He hunches forward more and tries to pull his hand away from hers, and ethics 101 says to let him, but if she does she’ll never get him back so she tightens her grip. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, ignore me,” she says. “Of course you’re not feeling well right now. But you’ll feel better in a little bit, after you shower, and eat some breakfast.”

“You think so?” He’s no longer trying to remove his hand from hers.

“That’s always the way it works,” she says, exaggerating only a little. 

She draws a breath, then plunges on. “I think it’s really neat how you two are so tuned in to each other. It’s so – okay, it’s not cute, because you’d kill anyone who called you cute, but it’s sweet, you know?”

“Sweet you say?”

“Yes, that’s what we all say. How sweet you and the colonel are together.”

“Everyone says this?”

“Well, not Ron.”

“Thank the Lord for small favors.”

Chloe turns her forehead into his shoulder briefly, then readjusts their hands. Enough talking. If this is where Dr. Rush is right now, she’ll meet him here. Like he’s done for her and math. 

Symmetry. 

* * * THE END * * *


End file.
